So how can a great system solve less than great recordings


It seems no matter how good a system is, the quality of recording quality takes priority.

Formsome reason nobody talks about challenges of making older recordings sound better.  Classics from 70s and 80s are amazing tunes, but even remastered editions still cant make sound qualiity shortcomings all better.  Profoundly sad.  Some older stuff sounds quite good but lots of stuff is disturbing.


jumia
To help old Millercarbonfootprint understand my point, I think a great system helps everything you run through it...if a recording is simply poorly done, it still is given its best shot and being made aware of the issues with a recording is an important thing. Get it? You do...good boy!
For my analog only system, by getting more out of the groves, each upgrade improves my enjoyment. Surely, even unlistenable LPs prior sound good now and, yes, good recordings sound even better.
This is the case for front end and other upgrades.
As a philosophical matter, I take issue with the word truth. I am of the POV that there is no such thing as knowing the truth. We can only know more of the truth. We can get “truthier”. It’s a never ending search.

Audiophiliacs are what we call those people who are obsessively connected to this search through their ears.

That aside:


As others have already said, the best that a good audio system can do is to reproduce what is in the recording (and, in my case, in the grooves) with the greatest accuracy as possible.

As a general rule, this makes almost all records - at least in my system - sound “better”: or, different, in the direction of having more information being revealed. As we all hear differently, it sounds “better” to me, but maybe you don’t like the information being revealed, so maybe not to you.

If the system is “good” enough, you can hear the decisions of the engineer, “good” or “bad”, and the limitations of the technology that he or she was using. I’ve learned to regard this as often than not as part of the charm of the recording, but that usually means that the content itself is not much more than a curiosity and I’m not listening to it that much.

But if it is a poorly engineered/pressed - or simply not to my liking in some manner - record that is a favorite, especially if it’s one from my youth (I’m thinking Beggars Banquet by the Stones as a prime example, or Canto General by Theodorakis/Neruda), I’m a non-purist black cat white cat as long as you catch the mouse sorta guy. The engineer in the studio makes decisions: if he made (subjective) decisions that I don’t like, I have no problem making the decision to try to correct them on the playback end. I have a “phase alignment correction” thingy and a consequence of kicking it in and dialing things up or down is that it adds dimension, depth, and presence. I’m also able to dial the cartridge one way or the other at the preamp stage in order to reduce harshness.

Because in the end, for me, since there’s only “truthier”, and because the recording engineers decisions are subjective, and because we all hear differently, and because the stamper might have worn out, etc etc yaowzza, the “search” is not for the truth, but rather for the most enjoyable experience of the artist’s intentions that I am able to pull out of the grooves. In other words, I think the search is governed by Freud’s pleasure principle rather than Plato’s objectivity. And if we all here are honest with ourselves, I think that’s what most of us through this hobby are actually searching for as well: a pleasurable truthiness (or rather, a truthy pleasure).
fi·del·i·ty/fəˈdelədē/
1 - faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support. Eg: "he sought only the strictest fidelity to justice”.
similar: Loyalty allegiance obedience constancy fealty homage staunchness
2 - the degree of exactness with which something is copied or reproduced."the 1949 recording provides reasonable fidelity"
I don’t see much in the way of truth here. You can be faithful to a lie, as our political culture has resoundingly demonstrated. So, as a general rule, what purpose does a conflation between loyalty and “truth” serve? 
I would guess you need two systems. Or atleast an EQ.
The better system you have, the worse those crap recordings will sound.